So after an exciting day of short tacking the beach going through all our working sails, more than once for a few of them, and paying off the Tantivity guys for our near t bone, we were ready for Day 2.
For this start it was just off the breakwater of French Creek and we had very similar winds as yesterday, solid 15 knots out of the NW. The only real difference was the start line was about 1/3 of the size and one end - the port end, was heavily favoured but on shore ( meaning hard water ahead ).
We again called for a second row start at the starboard end to stay away from trouble. A side note, these starts are just crazy. 41 boats including machines like ICON and Dragonfly that are going 2 and 3 times as fast as you in very tight quarters is not for the faint of heart.
Well as expected there was lots and lots of yelling, even one boat - GEM that tried to port tack the start. After all was said and done, 5 minutes into the race the divisions start to take shape and we are off. We short tack the beach and then take the long port tack all the way off to the Sisters. Going between Denman and the mainland is just too risky we feel.
The breeze builds to about 18 knots so we change to the #3 and are cross tacking a few competitors, namely Dominatrix and California Girl. At Sisters we see our lead boats heading down the middle in what looks like good pressure. We don't want to go to the edges so off we go to chase the bigger faster boats.
Well after lots more tacking and about 8 miles to go in a 5-6 knot NW breeze we hear the unthinkable over the radio.......all of the slow rated boats that went all the way to the edge got lifted, never had to tack and were now fetching the finish line better breeze than the rest of us are letting the RC know they are less than an hour out. We are left to drag race Opus and Night Runner home with Night Runner finishing just ahead of us but not enough to correct over us, and Opus 2 boat lengths ahead ( they rate the same so they get us. )
Comox is a beautiful place. The snow cap mountains seem remarkable low and we enjoy a great meal and a few drinks on a patio near the marina.
We ended up with a 9th place finish but spirits still high and looking forward to Campbell River tomorrow.
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